JERUSALEM — Sixty-eight Palestinians detained in Israel have been hospitalized after refusing food for almost five weeks, a spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service said on Wednesday.
Participants in what has now grown into a mass hunger strike, they are protesting Israel’s practice of detention without charge or trial; at least 160 such administrative detainees are currently being held in Israeli prisons.
The spokeswoman, Sivan Weizman, said that the condition of the hunger strikers was not life-threatening at this point and that those who had been striking the longest had been put under supervision in nine hospitals around the country.
But the minister of prisoner affairs for the Palestinian Authority, Issa Qaraqe, described the situation as “very dangerous” and said the health of many prisoners was deteriorating.
“Most are vomiting blood and fainting,” Mr. Qaraqe told the official radio station Voice of Palestine on Wednesday. “They cannot walk, they are in terrible pain. We are afraid some will die if the situation continues.”
Up to 350 prisoners have by now joined the hunger strike, according to Palestinian representatives, and the number is expected to rise in the coming days. Qadura Fares, president of the nongovernmental Palestinian Prisoners Society, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said 130 of them were administrative detainees and the rest were members of the broader population of Palestinian security prisoners who had joined the strike in solidarity.
“They are not young men,” Mr. Fares said of the hunger strikers by telephone. “Most of them are over 40 years of age. In the end they will all be in hospital.”
All were said to be taking water. Ms. Weizman of the Prison Service said some were also taking nonfood supplements.
Previous hunger strikes, like one that ended in May 2012, have put Israel in a bind. The prisoners hold a hallowed place in Palestinian society, where even those convicted of deadly terrorist acts against Israelis are honored as political prisoners and fighters for the Palestinian cause. In the past, the Israeli authorities have feared that a hunger-striking prisoner’s death could stir widespread unrest, but they have also been reluctant to give in to the prisoners’ demands.
One Palestinian prisoner, Samer Issawi, took only water and infusions for nearly nine months last year to press for his freedom. He was eventually released in December.
Over the last few months, Israel released more than 70 long-serving Palestinian prisoners in three groups as part of an American-brokered deal for the resumption of peace talks, which have since collapsed.
In all, there are more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. While most have been tried and convicted, Israel’s practice of administrative detention is particularly loathed and has been used against thousands of Palestinians over the years.
Israel defends the practice on grounds of national security. Israeli military courts allow imprisonment without charge or trial based on secret informants or information in cases where it says the incriminating material cannot be revealed in court for security reasons. Critics say the secret evidence makes it impossible for administrative detainees or their lawyers to mount a proper defense.
Administrative detention orders can be issued for a maximum of six months, but can be renewed indefinitely.
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Mass Hunger Strike Escalates In Israeli Prisons, 125 Refuse To Eat